Can I use the Microsoft Office student edition that I bought for XP with my new Vista?

Answer 1

Actually You can ... i thought the same thing but you can ! good luck

Answer 2

That shouldn't be a problem at all. I'm assuming you mean Microsoft Office Student Edition 2003, right? Office 2007 is intended for Vista, but 2003 will run just fine.

Answer 3

Most software is downward mobile, therefore, Vista should run XP.

However, if you installed the XP on a different computer, and this would be a different installation on a second computer, it may not work. Here is why:

How does Microsoft Product Activation work?
Source: http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/activation_faq.mspx

Product Activation works by validating that the software's product key, required as part of product installation, has not been used on more PCs than is allowed by the software's end user license agreement (EULA). In general, Windows XP can be installed on one PC and Office 2003 or Office XP can be installed on one PC and the laptop computer used by the user of the one PC. (For specifics, please see the EULA accompanying your product.) Product key information, in the form of the product ID, is sent along with a "hardware hash" (a non-unique number generated from the PC's hardware configuration) to Microsoft's activation system during activation. In Windows XP SP1, the product key itself is sent in addition to the product ID. Activation is completed either directly via the Internet or by a telephone call to a customer service representative. Activations on the same PC using the same product key are unlimited. Product Activation discourages piracy by limiting the number of times a product key can be activated on different PCs.
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Install Problems – What Windows Does –Install on Another Computer – Product Key – 25-character code

When you buy Windows XP in a shrink-wrapped box, you are allowed to install one copy on one PC. When Windows comes pre-installed on a new PC, it stays with the PC. You cannot transfer it from the bundled machine to a different machine. MS uses a technique called “BIOS locking” to make sure the copy stays ties to that specific PC forever.

Windows installer makes you type the 25-character code that’s printed on the case. The Product Activation program looks at various serial numbers inside your PC – the processor, network card, disk drives, etc. – mixes them together, and produces a second 25 character code that identifies your PC. These 50 characters, together, are called the Installation ID.

When you activate XP, you give MS the 50-character Installaton ID. If nobody else activated that 25-character code or if it has been activated with that specific Installation ID (which means you activated this particular copy of XP from the same PC twice) MS send back a 42-character Confirmation ID. The Installation ID and the Confirmation ID are stored on our PC.

If that 25-character code has been already been used on a different PC you will be notified that the number of times you can activate Windows with this product key has been exceeded.

Source: paraphrased from p. 18, Windows Gigabook for Dummies, by Peter Weverka et al.

Answer 4

Try it and see.

You have 3 licenses.

BTW, it does work.